Gogi Saroj Pal: Mythic Femininities

This exhibition is a tribute to the life and work of the late Gogi Saroj Pal (1945-2024), a leading artist of her generation, flagbearer for women in both art and society, and long-term friend of DAG.

Born in what was still the United Provinces of British India, Gogi began her studies in art in rural Rajasthan, and subsequently in Lucknow, and then in Delhi, where she also taught and which she made her home. Those familiar with her domestic life testify to her adherence to certain core Indian values, and to her simultaneous challenge to traditional views about the education and role of women. Similarly, her art engages with conventional iconographies while adapting and reinventing them for new purposes. Images of goddesses such as Kali, idealised female figures such as Nayikas, and mythic creatures such as Kinnaris, all fly through her canvases, not in their habitual guises, but in new forms which confound our knowledge of art history and confront prevalent notions of Indian women today. Few artists produce work that is at once so charming and so unsettling.

In a career spanning over fifty years, Gogi produced a substantial body of work that is consistent in theme and quality. She continued to work prodigiously and with passion despite illness and injury, her feisty determination overcoming all obstacles. Indeed, her untimely passing came at a moment when she seemed on the cusp of a whole new era of creativity. ‘Gogi Saroj Pal: the feminine unbound’ was a landmark exhibition that DAG dedicated to her work in 2011. We are proud to build on this and present this new exhibition, which demonstrates our continuing commitment to her art.